Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of the Voice of Korea (October 13, 2022)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent Voice of Korea broadcast.


Carlos notes:

Voice of Korea, 11865 kHz, broadcasting in Japanese from Kujang, North Korea.
Kim Jong Un guides test-firing of long-range strategic cruise missiles.
Listened this morning [13 Oct 2022] in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

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Mario reminds us to log 10 meter CW beacon activity!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who shares the following guest post:


Ten meter beacon band spans 28.100 – 28.300 MHz (photo by author)

Recent 10 Meter CW Beacon Activity

Mario Filippi, N2HUN

The 10m band has been coming alive lately and it’s time for all hams and SWLs to take advantage of it.  For several years I’ve been listening to 10m beacons with mediocre results but this has all changed over the past few days with loggings of European beacons running as low as seven watts.

These amateur radio beacons can be found from 28.1 – 28.3 MHz, sending out their callsigns in CW along with other information such as power output, grid square, antenna type and other tidbits of interesting information.  Most USA beacons are heard from 28.1 – 28.2 MHz while international ones inhabit 28.2 – 28.3 MHz. Some beacon ops will request QSL card reports the old school way via mail. I’ve written out a few already, bringing back fond memories of my early days as a ham and SWL.

Over the past few days at my central NJ QTH, using an Airspy HF+ Discovery and a ground mounted 31 foot vertical, here are some of the DX beacons logged:

  • IZ8RVA, 28.239 MHz, 1230 UTC
  • OH9TEN, 28.265 MHz, 1253 UTC
  • LA5TEN, 28.237 MHZ, 1300 UTC
  • OK1AR, 28.249 MHz, 1214 UTC
  • DA5TEN, 28.237 MHz, 1219 UTC (7 watts, vertical antenna!)
  • DL0IGI, 28.204 MHz, 1251 GMT (50watts)

Note that most signals were 449 with QSB so a quiet room, a good pair of headphones, many cups of good hot coffee/tea and a heap of patience are needed.  Beacons will send a continuous CW tone as a preamble while others will transmit a series of V’s (…-).  So, spin that VFO dial up to 10 meters, a band which comes alive as sunspots rise.  If you are a QRP’er, this comes as good news since this band is great for those who love to run peanut whistles.

Thanks and have fun!

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Audio journalist seeking Radio Free Grenada recordings

I received the following message from Ted Muldoon via the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contact form. If you happen to have any recordings of Radio Free Grenada, please comment so we may add these to the archive and preserve them for all to enjoy:

Hello,

My name is Ted Muldoon. I’m an audio journalist at The Washington Post.

I’m currently working on an audio project examining the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. Among the many lasting impacts on the island from that year, was the loss of the Radio Free Grenada archive, which was bombed and destroyed by the Americans. From what I understand from speaking with people on Grenada, it was huge cultural loss for the island.

Doing a quick search, this post (https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/radio-free-grenada-january-1980) was one of the few results returned with a snippet of archival audio from that time. I’m curious whether there’s any chance that the author, Jim Nall [or other contributors] might have more recordings from Radio Free Grenada?

Best,
Ted Muldoon

I realize how unlikely it is that anyone still has a recording of Radio Free Grenada, but if you do please comment or contact us so that we can digitize, archive, and share this with the wider world.

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Campaign to help WRMI after extensive hurricane damage

Our friend Jeff White, General Manager of WRMI is trying to repair extensive damage to the WRMI antenna farm post hurricane Ian. A GoFundMe has been created to help WRMI with repair costs. Even small donations add up!

Jeff White provides the following details:

Hello,

WRMI has a rich history of supplying news, information and entertainment to the world from our Okeechobee, Florida Transmitters.

Hurricane Ian damage to our antenna farm is so extensive, it has knocked us off the air to Europe and Africa.

We need your help to get us back on the air again to transmit to Europe and Africa news, information, religious programming and entertainment.

We have no insurance for the antenna farm due to the huge cost of insurance premiums.

We are desperately asking for help around the world to get us back on the air again to Europe and Africa. Your help is paramount to WRMI returning to the air in the many countries in Europe and Africa.

Your help will allow WRMI to rebuild the transmission towers destroyed by Hurricane Ian that are pointed towards Europe and Africa.

We thank you for your support of WRMI. Hurricane Ian knocked us down pretty hard. But we know with your help, we can rise back up and provide programming in many languages again to Europe and Africa.

Sincerely,

Jeff White
General Manager WRMI
Okeechobee, Florida

Click here to support WRMI via GoFundMe.

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Testing the MFJ-1886 Receive Loop Antenna

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM

Hang out any place online where shortwave listeners gather, and you won’t have to wait long before you hear something like this: “I recently moved to a condo, apartment, or house where there is a home-owners association. Listening conditions are pretty rotten, and I cannot string up outdoor antennas because of physical constraints or HOA rules . . . help!”

Ever since I got back into SWLing nearly two years ago, I have faced similar issues, as I explained here. During that time, I have frequently read that amplified small loop antennas work pretty darn well, and that has piqued my curiosity.

A couple of days ago, the good folks at MFJ (an SWLing.com sponsor) sent me their MFJ-1886 receiving loop antenna. Weighing just 2.5 pounds, the 1886 is a 36-inch-diameter loop of aircraft-grade with an amplifier attached in a weatherproof enclosure. Designed for receiving only, it covers .5 to 30 MHz.

The fit and finish of the 1886 is, in my opinion, great. Looking at the seamless loop and the molded enclosure for the amplifier, I have no reason to doubt what MFJ has to say about it: the MFJ-1886 is weather-sealed, very ruggedly constructed, and mechanically stable under all weather conditions. In fact, you can mount it permanently on any inexpensive TV rotor and direct it from the comfort of your shack . . . it also installs easily on a tripod or handheld mast for portable use.

From MFJ’s manual for the 1886 loop.

Important: the 1886 loop is a directional antenna. If you are looking through the open area in the middle of the loop (the flat side, if you will), you are looking in the direction in which the antenna tends to null out signals . . . in both directions. If you are sighting along the edge of the loop (at right angles to the flat side), that is the direction in which the antenna produces the most gain. As a result, you will get the most utility out of the 1886 if you can mount it in such a way that you can rotate it to maximize gain and/or null out noise or interfering signals as needed.

Since my mission was to test the 1886 indoors, I wrapped some parachute cord around the loop and hung it from a screw attached to the top of a window frame. Obviously, I am not getting the most from the 1886 by keeping it in a fixed position (in fact, I was getting maximum gain to the northeast and the southwest), but I did experiment with the antenna hanging from the ceiling so that it could rotate, and I did, indeed, find that signal strength rose and fell as the antenna changed position.

To see how the 1886 performed, I used my Grundig Satellit 800 as a test bed. The Satellit 800 has three different antenna inputs: a wire input, to which I attached the 50-foot horizontal room loop (an indoor antenna which runs around the perimeter of my radio room at about seven feet in the air); a coax input, to which I attached the MFJ 1886 loop, and the four-foot whip antenna that is built into the Satellit 800. By reaching around the back of the radio and sliding the antenna selection switch, I could easily change from one antenna to another and compare the 1886 loop with the whip and the horizontal room loop at various frequencies and settings.

Setting up the 1886 loop is super easy. First, attach a length of coax to bottom of the amplifier box. (The 1886 uses SO-239 connectors.) Attach that coax to the top of the Bias Tee. The Bias Tee supplies power to the amplifier mounted on the loop using the coax and without introducing noise. Run another piece of coax from the bottom of the Bias Tee to the receiver, and, finally, plug the power supply into the Bias Tee and the house power where you are using the antenna.

Operating the 1886 is even easier. To hear the signal from the loop without amplification, leave the Bias Tee switch in the OFF position. To hear the signal with amplification, just slide the switch to the ON position. That’s all there is to it. There are no fussy adjustments to make.

So how did the 1886 loop perform? Very well, thank you. In all cases, it clearly outperformed the Satellit 800’s whip antenna, providing more signal with less noise. When pitted against the 50-foot horizontal room loop wire antenna, the 1886 typically delivered more signal and less noise. In a few instances, the horizontal room loop was equal to the 1886 loop in terms of signal strength and low noise. In no cases, did the horizontal room loop outperform the 1886 loop.

Tuning around a bit, I found myself listening to a ham from Spain working DX on the 15 meter band. A little further up the band, a ham from central Bulgaria was dealing with a pile-up of U.S. hams trying to reach him. Of the three antennas options I had on the Satellit 800, the 1886 loop offered the most pleasant listening with more signal, less noise.

Then I tried the 1886 with a couple of my portable shortwave receivers. The Bulgarian ham was still on the air and was marginal on one portable and not hearable at all on the other on their native whip antennas.  With the 1886 loop connected, however, the Bulgarian was clear and easy to hear. And – thanks to a ham friend who whipped up an additional coax “jumper” with amazing speed – I tried the 1886 loop with the MFJ 1045C active preselector and found the two made a very potent combo for pulling signals out of the mud.

So, would I recommend the MFJ 1886 Receiving Loop for a would-be HF listener who lives in a condo, apartment, or house with antenna woes? Absolutely . . . even if you have to hang it flat in front of a window. And if you can find a way to mount it so that it can be rotated, even better. (Someday, I hope to try the 1886 outside mounted on an inexpensive TV rotator. For now, there simply isn’t room in my cramped radio space.)

Of course, the performance at your location will depend on the conditions where you live. Nevertheless, I found the MFJ 1886 Receiving Loop to be easy to set up, easy to use, and effective.

Click here to check out the MFJ-1886 Receiving Magnet Loop Antenna at MFJ.

Suggestions for MFJ: offer a kit or accessory that would be make it easy to set the 1886 on a desk or table. Likewise a kit or accessory that would facilitate using the 1886 on a camera tripod seems like a good idea.

Additional note: The SWLing forum is a great place for discussing all things related to shortwave listening.

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Sangean ATS-909X2: Uli is seeking information about firmware version 78

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Uli (DK5ZU), who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I hope you are fine! I just bought a Sangean ATS-909X2 despite of the mixed reviews it earned in the beginning. There are a lot of reviews as on SWLING and other sources. But I think no newer models have been reviewed.

Mine is build in May 2022 and has a firmware version 078. This is quite ahead of the reviewed versions with 073. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information throughout the net, what changes where made since the version 073.

I just have the radio for one day, but for example the noise when touching the display is gone and I found no birdies so far. The SSB is still low concerning the audio level compared to AM but the SSB sounds much better as on my Tecsun 501x I had once.

As of now, I am really happy with this rig, and if current production line and firmware fixed some issues of the older one’s I guess this should be known since there may be folks interested in the radio which do hesitate to buy one because of the probably outdated reviews.

Do you know a source, where a firmware update log could be found? I just found this:
https://www.qsl.net/n9ewo/ats909x2_firmware_log.pdf

But this one ends with version 073.

Would you mind to post this question on the blog?
If you need more infos please let me know.

Best regards and 73,
Uli
DK5ZU

Post readers: If you can share a link to firmware revision logs or any information regarding the latest firmware updates for the ATS-909X2, please comment!

UPDATE

Sangean America Notes in our comments:

[S]oftware version 0.78 is a compatibility update for the new LCD hardware in the ATS-909×2 this update is only for units that use the new BU91510KV LCD display. it does not improve the performance of the ATS-909×2

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